Professor Erin Baker of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department recently published an article discussing ways to focus clean energy funding that will produce the greatest energy and environmental benefits within the constraints of a tight federal budget. Baker’s article, posted May 22 on the website of The Conversation, was also picked up by the Albany Times Union[2], San Francisco Chronicle[3], Pantagraph.com[4], and others. The headline of Baker’s article was “With a tight federal budget, here’s where to focus clean energy research funding.”Read Baker’s entire article in The Conversation[5].

The Conversation is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community, delivered directly to the public. Its team of professional editors work with university and research institute experts to unlock their knowledge for use by the wider public.

Some highlights of Baker’s article reveal not only the status of alternative energy in the current U.S. budgetary plans, but the scientific and smart way to focus federal investments on the most promising alternative energies.

“President Trump’s detailed budget request reportedly will ask Congress to cut funding for the Energy Department’s clean energy programs by almost 70 percent[6], from $2 billion this year to $636 million in 2018,” as Baker wrote. “Clean energy advocates[7] and environmental groups[8] strongly oppose such drastic cuts, but some reductions are likely. Where should DOE focus its limited funding to produce the greatest energy and environmental benefits?”

To address this problem, as Baker explained, “My colleagues Laura Diaz Anadon[9] of Cambridge University and Valentina Bosetti[10] of Bocconi University and I recently reviewed[11] 15 studies that asked this question. We found a number of clean energy technologies in electricity and transportation that will help us slow climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even at lower levels of investment.” Her article then specified some of these green alternatives.

As Baker concluded, “Not all R&D investments will pay off. In fact, that’s one reason we have federal funding. Governments can take risks that are too big for private firms. The Energy Department can reduce that risk and increase chances of a breakthrough by maintaining a diverse portfolio that invests in a range of very different technologies like solar and nuclear power along with vehicles, Carbon Capture and Sequestration, and batteries. If these investments are made smartly, our research indicates that some of them will deliver huge and much-needed returns.” (June 2017)